Search Captions & Ask AI

The Big Risk Staring You in the Face - E52

January 29, 2024 / 25:15

This episode of the Best Interest Podcast, hosted by Jesse Kramer, discusses confidence, overconfidence, and underconfidence in investing. Key topics include the importance of finding a balance in confidence levels, the efficient market hypothesis, and a study from Columbia Business School on gender differences in confidence.

Jesse explains that investing requires a "Goldilocks level of confidence," where investors should be confident in the market's long-term performance while remaining humble about short-term predictions. He references Burton Malkiel's book, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," and the efficient market hypothesis.

The episode highlights a study from Columbia University, which found that men tend to be overconfident in their investing knowledge, while women often exhibit underconfidence. Jesse shares personal anecdotes from his work in wealth management, illustrating these trends.

Jesse also discusses insights from Larry Sedro, who emphasizes that the biggest risk for investors is often their own confidence levels. He explains how overconfidence can lead to poor investment decisions and higher trading costs.

Finally, Jesse encourages listeners to find a balanced approach to investing, combining confidence in their decisions with humility regarding market predictions. He stresses the importance of financial education in achieving this balance.

TL;DR

Jesse Kramer discusses confidence levels in investing, highlighting gender differences and the importance of balance for successful decision-making.

Video

00:00:01
welcome to the best interest podcast
00:00:04
where we believe Benjamin Franklin's
00:00:06
advice that an investment in knowledge
00:00:08
pays the best interest both in finances
00:00:11
and in your life every episode teaches
00:00:13
you personal finance and investing in
00:00:16
simple terms now here's your host Jesse
00:00:21
Kramer hello everybody and welcome to
00:00:24
episode 52 of the best interest podcast
00:00:27
my name is Jesse Kramer today we're
00:00:30
going to talk about confidence
00:00:32
overconfidence underconfidence different
00:00:35
levels of confidence in investing and
00:00:37
why it's such an important topic to talk
00:00:39
about some people even think it's
00:00:42
potentially the most important topic to
00:00:44
talk about when it comes to individual
00:00:46
investors people like you and me who are
00:00:49
trying to save and invest money for the
00:00:51
long run why does confidence matter so
00:00:54
[Music]
00:00:58
much
00:01:02
okay investing requires a Goldilocks
00:01:05
level of confidence not too hot not too
00:01:08
cold you want to be somewhere in the
00:01:10
middle right we want to have the
00:01:12
confidence that the market will act in
00:01:15
our favor in the long run right so we we
00:01:17
look at historical data we try to
00:01:19
evaluate probabilities we try to
00:01:21
understand why stocks tend to go up over
00:01:23
time convince ourselves that there's
00:01:25
really this fundamental reason for that
00:01:27
to occur right there's a fundamental
00:01:29
reason for stocks to go up in the long
00:01:30
run but we also need to have the
00:01:32
humility to realize and the humility to
00:01:35
know that we can't predict the shortterm
00:01:38
movements of the market we look at stuff
00:01:41
like Burton mul's evidence from a random
00:01:44
walk down Wall Street which is an
00:01:45
excellent book if you've never seen it I
00:01:47
can throw a link in the show notes to a
00:01:49
random walk down Wall Street we also
00:01:52
look at stuff like the efficient market
00:01:55
hypothesis the efficient market
00:01:56
hypothesis states that some markets
00:01:59
especially when there's more people
00:02:01
involved in the market and more
00:02:02
information about whatever's trading in
00:02:05
that market that some markets approach
00:02:08
what's called efficiency which means
00:02:10
that they can take new information about
00:02:12
the assets so let's look at like apple
00:02:15
the stock market can take new
00:02:17
information about Apple and synthesize
00:02:19
that information so quickly that people
00:02:22
will buy and sell the stock and the
00:02:24
stock will repic to its correct value
00:02:28
and that the market does that more more
00:02:30
instantaneously and more accurately than
00:02:32
any individual can do it on their own
00:02:35
again that takes some humility to admit
00:02:38
that the market is probably smarter than
00:02:40
you in most cases of course there are
00:02:42
some investors who disagree with the
00:02:45
efficient market hypothesis and have the
00:02:46
evidence to show have the track record
00:02:49
to show that there might be holes in the
00:02:50
efficient market hypothesis take a look
00:02:52
at someone like Warren Buffett right
00:02:53
Charlie Munger his partner they've
00:02:56
beaten the market especially earlier in
00:02:58
the career but even to today they've got
00:03:00
a terrific track record against the
00:03:02
market and they will look at the stock
00:03:04
market and say efficient well not always
00:03:06
there are lots of times where stocks are
00:03:08
inefficiently priced where they're
00:03:10
inaccurately priced and we're going to
00:03:12
try to take advantage of that okay
00:03:15
they're really smart guys they've been
00:03:16
doing this a long time for them that's
00:03:19
probably the right level of confidence
00:03:22
but for joeo to have that opinion for
00:03:24
joeo who's you know working 50 hours a
00:03:27
week as a I don't know High School
00:03:29
baseball coach and plumber he watches my
00:03:31
Uncle Jim Kramer two nights a week and
00:03:34
he thinks he's going to come out and do
00:03:35
what Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger
00:03:37
do that's overconfidence right we want
00:03:39
to avoid that I mean this is the bare
00:03:42
Market just like 2001 now on that topic
00:03:45
we're going to switch gears and talk
00:03:46
about this influential study that came
00:03:49
out of the Columbia Business School
00:03:51
Columbia University New York City and I
00:03:53
think it was 2011 2012 somewhere in that
00:03:55
range and the results of the study which
00:03:58
again it's a social science study which
00:04:01
especially recently they they tend to
00:04:03
get frowned upon because the social
00:04:05
sciences are notoriously hard to produce
00:04:09
good evidence on you can't run a
00:04:11
scientific experiment like you can in a
00:04:13
lab where you have you know lasers and
00:04:15
you're testing gravity and just the data
00:04:17
is the data because in social sciences a
00:04:20
lot of time you are relying on the way
00:04:22
that people respond you're relying on
00:04:24
people's opinions on the particular day
00:04:26
that they sat down and did your study
00:04:28
there might be cognitive or behavioral
00:04:30
biases at play that push someone's
00:04:32
answer in a certain direction and and
00:04:34
can really lead to misleading results
00:04:38
however this Columbia study has been
00:04:40
rerun a few different times and the
00:04:43
evidence appears to be really sound the
00:04:45
results of the study are that men on
00:04:47
average are
00:04:49
overconfident they think they know more
00:04:52
than they actually do and that women on
00:04:54
average are underconfidence
00:04:56
they think they know less than they
00:04:59
actually do one of the important
00:05:01
takeaways of this study is that the the
00:05:04
scientists who who wrote it they called
00:05:06
it honest overc confidence and honest
00:05:09
underconfidence and it's so important
00:05:11
it's because these men and these women
00:05:13
in the study and the men and the women
00:05:15
that you are interacting with in your
00:05:17
daily life and maybe even some of you
00:05:18
men and women who are listening to this
00:05:21
you honestly believe that you know all
00:05:24
these things you do so like take men for
00:05:26
example they're honestly
00:05:27
overconfident someone might whatever 30%
00:05:31
50% overconfident in terms of their
00:05:33
knowledge and they they honestly believe
00:05:35
it though they honestly believe it and
00:05:36
it's not until you kind of sit down and
00:05:38
they able to show them through some sort
00:05:39
of objective facts that they don't know
00:05:41
as much as they do until you show them
00:05:43
that they are going to continue to
00:05:45
believe that they know more than they do
00:05:48
and we have to ask ourselves questions
00:05:49
like how does that play out in the real
00:05:51
world and how does that play out in
00:05:53
investing we're going to get into some
00:05:55
of those answers but first I want to
00:05:57
share just some interesting anecdotes
00:05:59
from male and female confidence through
00:06:01
my work here on the best interest
00:06:03
through interacting with readers through
00:06:05
my work at my my professional work now
00:06:08
right I work for a fiduciary wealth
00:06:09
management firm in Rochester New York
00:06:11
and I sit down with people every single
00:06:13
day and talk to them about their
00:06:15
personal finances about their investing
00:06:18
and I'm not surprised especially after
00:06:21
seeing this study it's something that
00:06:22
I've kind of felt intuitively anyway and
00:06:24
I'm sure many of you have felt it
00:06:26
intuitively anyway that yeah if someone
00:06:29
is going to be overconfident in a
00:06:31
conversation especially about something
00:06:32
like stocks or investing it's probably
00:06:35
going to be a guy it's going to be a man
00:06:37
right and if someone's underconfidence
00:06:39
or timid or or afraid to take a stance
00:06:42
that person seems more likely to be a
00:06:44
woman and and that's the anecdotal data
00:06:46
that I have for sure because when people
00:06:49
come to my office and they are asking
00:06:51
about individual stock names when
00:06:53
they're questioning the reason for
00:06:55
diversification when they're talking
00:06:57
about using leverage right you using
00:06:59
leverage means you take a bet and then
00:07:01
you borrow someone's money to increase
00:07:03
the size of your bet if you win you win
00:07:06
really big and if you lose you basically
00:07:08
lose all your money and sometimes even
00:07:10
more sometimes you lose someone else's
00:07:12
money so it's really risky to use
00:07:14
leverage those kind of conversations
00:07:16
that I have at at work they are 10 or 20
00:07:19
times more likely to happen with a with
00:07:20
another man than with a woman but when I
00:07:23
do have conversations with women which
00:07:24
is pretty often and it's getting more
00:07:26
often and I think it's awesome those
00:07:28
conversations are more likely to contain
00:07:30
statements like I don't even know where
00:07:32
to begin or I've never been able to do
00:07:35
this stuff meaning like Finance or
00:07:37
investing or I've never felt comfortable
00:07:39
with numbers and I don't know where to
00:07:41
start or to be honest with you Jesse I
00:07:44
don't even care if I'm in the room I
00:07:46
just want you to take care of it all for
00:07:47
me because I'm never going to understand
00:07:49
this stuff and sometimes I I would just
00:07:51
want to pause and call a timeout and say
00:07:53
you know what it is totally fine if if
00:07:55
you really are uncomfortable with math
00:07:57
or if you're really uncomfortable with
00:07:58
these topics I don't want want to force
00:07:59
them down your throat I don't want to
00:08:01
make you feel anxious that I'm that I'm
00:08:03
forcing you to learn this stuff but a
00:08:05
lot of this stuff is doable right a lot
00:08:08
of this stuff is something that if you
00:08:10
sit down and you you listen to some
00:08:12
podcasts hey you you read some blogs you
00:08:14
read some books you you follow some news
00:08:17
you can start to pick up some of the
00:08:19
basics it doesn't necessarily mean that
00:08:21
you have to act on that stuff right one
00:08:23
of the problems of of overconfidence is
00:08:25
that some people will watch as I said
00:08:27
earlier my Uncle Jim Kramer he's not my
00:08:28
real Uncle but they'll watch Uncle Jim
00:08:30
Kramer and they'll say yep I'm now ready
00:08:32
to be a stock picker I'm going to go do
00:08:34
it well time out you watched Uncle Jim
00:08:36
Kramer for two hours a week for three
00:08:38
months and now you think you're ready to
00:08:40
take on Wall Street like that's classic
00:08:42
overconfidence but having watch those
00:08:45
three months of Uncle Jim Kramer that's
00:08:47
better than knowing nothing and you
00:08:48
obviously learned something and and
00:08:50
hopefully you've learned enough to know
00:08:52
that you have much more to learn but
00:08:54
you've learned enough to say yeah I'm
00:08:55
I'm I'm reasonably comfortable having a
00:08:57
conversation about investing
00:08:59
so going back to the way we started this
00:09:02
conversation confidence is a Goldilocks
00:09:05
scenario there's a Goldilocks zone where
00:09:08
you don't want to be too confident so
00:09:10
confident that you just choose to do
00:09:11
something stupid but you also don't want
00:09:13
to be underconfidence where you just
00:09:15
kind of sit there on your hands and
00:09:16
believe that you're never going to learn
00:09:17
this stuff or or you're so scared that
00:09:20
you never take any action in the first
00:09:22
place right that's another thing that
00:09:24
it's a shame and and and it's something
00:09:26
I see all the time and I do my best to
00:09:27
help people with is this idea of someone
00:09:30
says you know what I think the stock
00:09:31
market's a Ponzi scheme I've seen the
00:09:33
headlines I've never really learned
00:09:35
about it but I I think it's fraud and
00:09:37
any kind of investing is fraud I don't
00:09:39
even really well now with Silicon Valley
00:09:41
Bank which by the way we covered a
00:09:42
couple episodes ago I I don't even think
00:09:45
banks are legitimate anymore I'm just
00:09:46
going to stuff my cash underneath the
00:09:48
mattress like whoa that amount of fear
00:09:51
to me at least shows a a a really too
00:09:54
much underconfidence and and someone's
00:09:57
going to choose to to throw money under
00:10:00
their mattress when it's like there are
00:10:02
much much better options you don't have
00:10:04
to go all in on the stock market right
00:10:05
there's a middle ground there's a gold
00:10:07
loock zone for every investor out there
00:10:10
part of my mission on the best interest
00:10:11
what I try to do with at work so we try
00:10:14
to understand an individual's risk
00:10:15
tolerance we try to understand how
00:10:17
someone thinks what they know we want to
00:10:19
educate them further as much as we can
00:10:22
and then we want to advise them whether
00:10:25
they go off on their own or whether they
00:10:26
use us at work we want to inv them on
00:10:29
the right portfolio construction for
00:10:31
them the right amount of risk to take
00:10:32
the right amount of reward to expect how
00:10:34
to put their financial plan together
00:10:36
that kind of
00:10:38
[Music]
00:10:46
thing let's switch gears real quick cuz
00:10:49
we're going to bring in some Outsiders
00:10:51
not as guests per se but I'm going to
00:10:53
read from some of the stuff they've
00:10:54
written about overconfidence
00:10:56
underconfidence just The Confidence Game
00:10:58
in general when it comes comes to
00:10:59
investing and this comes from a
00:11:01
gentleman named Larry Sedro Larry is an
00:11:04
icon in the advisory and investment
00:11:07
business he's very wellknown he's an
00:11:09
excellent writer I think he's written 17
00:11:11
books and from this article which I'll
00:11:14
I'll throw the the link in the show
00:11:15
notes Larry writes the biggest risk
00:11:18
confronting most investors is staring at
00:11:20
them in the mirror boom what a what a
00:11:24
statement the biggest risk guys it's not
00:11:26
a bank failing it's not interest rates
00:11:28
going up it's not that you make the
00:11:30
wrong stock picks or maybe it is only if
00:11:34
the reason why you made the wrong stock
00:11:35
picks is staring you in the mirror the
00:11:38
biggest risks to most investors is
00:11:41
themselves and it often has to do with
00:11:43
their confidence or lack thereof in
00:11:45
their own decision-making and Larry
00:11:48
talks about some cool research for
00:11:49
example and I'm just going to go through
00:11:50
Bullet by Bullet rather than than adding
00:11:52
too much commentary people tend to be
00:11:54
over optimistic about their life
00:11:55
prospects and that optimism directly
00:11:58
affects their final and their financial
00:12:01
decisions overconfidence has been
00:12:03
documented among experts and
00:12:05
professionals including corporate
00:12:07
Financial officers as well as
00:12:09
professional Traders and investment
00:12:10
bankers right overconfidence happens
00:12:13
everywhere overconfidence includes a few
00:12:15
different phenomena one for example is
00:12:17
called overplacement
00:12:19
overplacement is when you overestimate
00:12:22
your rank in a population on some
00:12:24
positive Dimension classic example would
00:12:27
be if I asked you hey on a scale of 0 to
00:12:30
100 how smart are you like what
00:12:33
percentage of people are You Smarter
00:12:34
then overestimation is when someone says
00:12:37
I'm probably smarter than 75% of the
00:12:40
population when really they're only
00:12:41
smarter than
00:12:42
60% so overplacement is just one example
00:12:46
of the way overconfidence works and it's
00:12:47
when you just you think you're better
00:12:48
smarter better looking jump higher
00:12:51
whatever it is you think you're better
00:12:52
than you are now over Precision is
00:12:55
another type of overconfidence and it's
00:12:57
where you overestimate the accuracy of
00:12:59
your beliefs and you say something like
00:13:02
hey what's the S&P 500 going to finish
00:13:04
at at the end of this year and you say
00:13:06
yeah I'm pretty sure it's going to
00:13:07
finish at
00:13:08
$422 and the reason why is because I ran
00:13:10
this analysis like that's a very very
00:13:12
precise estimate and there's no way that
00:13:15
any person can really believe that
00:13:17
estimate to that level of precision but
00:13:20
where does this overconfidence come from
00:13:22
right now there's one cognitive process
00:13:27
that really support courts where
00:13:30
overconfidence comes from and it's
00:13:31
called the self- attribution bias this
00:13:34
is something that came from the research
00:13:35
of Amos tki and Danny Conan won a Nobel
00:13:39
Prize Danny Conan wrote a famous book
00:13:41
called Thinking Fast and Slow really
00:13:44
well-known guys especially in the fields
00:13:46
of Behavioral Finance behavioral
00:13:48
economics now self- attribution bias
00:13:52
occurs in all people right it's
00:13:53
something that we have to be able to
00:13:54
recognize in ourselves and hopefully
00:13:56
combat and it occurs when people credit
00:13:59
their own talent and abilities for past
00:14:02
success while blaming their failures on
00:14:05
bad luck okay in other words when
00:14:08
investors get something right they tend
00:14:11
to say yep that was me that was my
00:14:13
decision and now I'm I'm pretty
00:14:15
confident in my decision- making because
00:14:17
cause and effect I made that decision I
00:14:19
got it right boom I'm confident but then
00:14:23
when that same investor gets something
00:14:24
wrong they tend to fail to downgrade
00:14:29
their own confidence right they say well
00:14:32
no no see my my call was still right but
00:14:34
it's it's just bad luck that Ford had
00:14:37
that malfunction at their plant and they
00:14:38
stopped producing cars that day and the
00:14:40
stock went down that that's not on me
00:14:42
that's that's just bad luck when I got
00:14:44
it right it was on me that was my good
00:14:47
stuff but when I get stuff wrong it's
00:14:49
just bad luck well no wonder
00:14:50
overconfidence occurs in that scenario
00:14:53
if you blame all the bad things in your
00:14:54
life on bad luck you know you're not
00:14:57
taking responsibility for the things in
00:14:58
your life and and you're going to end up
00:15:00
overconfident now how does this
00:15:02
overconfidence manifest itself in the
00:15:05
way investors act individual investors
00:15:08
trade individual stocks actively right
00:15:10
and on average they lose money by doing
00:15:12
so and the more someone actively trades
00:15:15
due to overconfidence the more money
00:15:17
they typically lose Studies have shown
00:15:20
that the stocks that individual
00:15:21
investors buy they tend to subsequently
00:15:24
underperform the market whereas the
00:15:26
stocks that individual investors sell
00:15:29
tend to outperform the market right
00:15:31
individual overconfident investors are
00:15:34
buying the losers and selling the
00:15:36
winners the exact opposite of what you
00:15:38
want to do then we can look at something
00:15:41
like actively managed mutual funds that
00:15:43
charge High fees without delivering the
00:15:46
the high performance that we'd expect
00:15:48
from them and and that shows even
00:15:50
further evidence that even expert
00:15:53
individual investors in active funds
00:15:55
tend to be overconfident about their
00:15:57
ability to to select High performing
00:16:00
stocks or maybe maybe if it's a
00:16:03
investment adviser they're overconfident
00:16:05
in their ability to select High
00:16:06
performing
00:16:07
managers now studies show that men as we
00:16:10
already talked about earlier are more
00:16:12
overconfident than women in decision
00:16:14
domains especially those that are
00:16:16
traditionally perceived as masculine one
00:16:18
of which is financial matters what we're
00:16:20
talking about here today that
00:16:21
overconfidence leads to more action you
00:16:24
know in this realm action equates to
00:16:26
trading and one study found that
00:16:28
consistent with higher confidence on the
00:16:30
part of men the average turnover for
00:16:32
accounts opened by men is about one and
00:16:34
a half times higher than for accounts
00:16:37
opened by women turnover means trading
00:16:39
right men trade one and a half times
00:16:41
more than women and as a result men pay
00:16:45
almost 1% more per year in higher
00:16:48
transaction costs and their net of fee
00:16:51
returns are far lower than women so
00:16:55
that's what Larry Sedro has to say about
00:16:57
overconfidence
00:16:59
not only where it comes from but also
00:17:01
how it affects us in our investing lives
00:17:04
and now I'm pulling from a second writer
00:17:05
here his name is Rob enan and he writes
00:17:07
on a Blog a Canadian blog Rob is
00:17:09
Canadian he writes on a Blog called
00:17:11
Boomer and Echo and I'm having to reach
00:17:13
out to Rob because I don't know why brog
00:17:15
is called Boomer and Echo and maybe I
00:17:17
should but Rob writes overconfidence is
00:17:20
something that most investors have to
00:17:21
deal with at some point in their journey
00:17:24
and Rob argues that they're actually two
00:17:26
types of overconfident investors now the
00:17:29
first is kind of what we already talked
00:17:30
about and that's when you believe that
00:17:31
your past investing performance has more
00:17:34
to do with your skill in decision-
00:17:35
making than with luck or timing or
00:17:38
market conditions now the second type of
00:17:41
overconfidence we haven't quite touched
00:17:42
on it yet but it is similar and that
00:17:44
occurs when you believe that you can
00:17:46
correctly predict a future outcome and
00:17:49
then you make active decisions with your
00:17:51
Investments to support that belief now
00:17:54
we'll come back to the second one the
00:17:56
first type of overconfidence you you can
00:17:58
avoid that or combat that by comparing
00:18:01
your investment returns with an
00:18:03
appropriate Benchmark with an
00:18:05
appropriate index so if I'm trying to
00:18:08
beat the stock market and I'm investing
00:18:10
say in like mostly large cap US stocks
00:18:13
that you've all heard of I need to
00:18:15
compare my results to the S&P 500 and
00:18:17
say am I actually doing better are my
00:18:20
investment thesis actually playing out
00:18:24
very few people actually take notes on
00:18:26
why they're investing in what they're
00:18:28
investing in most investors I talk to
00:18:30
who just decide to throw money at this
00:18:32
stock or that stock they do it because
00:18:34
they say oh I've heard of Facebook oh I
00:18:36
saw it in the news like that's such a
00:18:37
poor reason at the very least you should
00:18:40
have some fundamental rationale for why
00:18:42
you're investing and then you can
00:18:43
compare your decisions against reality
00:18:45
and you can compare your results against
00:18:47
the S&P 500 now the second type of
00:18:50
overconfidence that we talked about
00:18:52
let's give an example there so that type
00:18:54
of overconfidence is essentially
00:18:56
predicting the future and then making
00:18:59
investment decisions according to your
00:19:01
prediction it's saying something like
00:19:03
you know what I bet Co is going to come
00:19:05
back in the next eight months and
00:19:07
because of that I'm gonna buy more zoom
00:19:10
and I'm gonna buy more pelaton and I'm
00:19:13
gonna I'm gonna buy all the things that
00:19:14
worked out the first time in covid and
00:19:16
I'm going to sell all the things that
00:19:18
didn't do well the first time in covid
00:19:19
just because I I I read a study and it
00:19:21
said CO's coming back so boom there's a
00:19:23
macro prediction about the future of the
00:19:26
world and then I'm going to adjust my in
00:19:28
Ms accordingly this type of
00:19:30
overconfidence is is really hard to
00:19:32
overcome because we as humans we love
00:19:36
making predictions about the future we
00:19:38
love listening to experts who make smart
00:19:41
informed predictions about the future or
00:19:43
at least have some sort of interesting
00:19:45
facts to back up their predictions and
00:19:47
then even if we don't personally have a
00:19:50
strong opinion about the future it's
00:19:52
pretty easy for us to be swayed by what
00:19:55
someone else says and then the way we've
00:19:57
been swayed write the way that our
00:19:59
opinions have been affected it's pretty
00:20:01
understandable that those opinions will
00:20:03
trickle down into our investing
00:20:06
decisions so personally this is what I
00:20:10
do and and what Rob does too to fight
00:20:12
this type of overc confidence is to
00:20:15
invest in some
00:20:17
Diversified bucket of Investments
00:20:20
predetermined asset allocation with
00:20:22
rules in place for when to rebalance and
00:20:25
what I mean by that is my IRA assets are
00:20:28
80% in Diversified stock funds 10% in
00:20:32
Diversified bond funds 10% in
00:20:34
Diversified alternative funds no matter
00:20:37
what 801010 is my target allocation I
00:20:40
don't really care what the future of the
00:20:42
world is I don't really care if CO's
00:20:44
coming back my timeline is long I'm not
00:20:46
worried about macro events in general
00:20:49
and I let those funds do the
00:20:51
diversification for me so with that kind
00:20:54
of asset allocation
00:20:56
portfolio you can pay attention mention
00:20:58
to what the underlying Holdings are but
00:21:00
you don't really need to right what you
00:21:03
really need to do is look at your
00:21:04
overall performance you can rebalance as
00:21:06
needed to your targeted mix you can even
00:21:09
set up rules in your accounts you know
00:21:11
you can set up a rule at Fidelity at
00:21:12
Vanguard at Schwab to say hey when this
00:21:15
801010 asset allocation gets out of
00:21:17
whack by more than say 3% I want you to
00:21:21
rebalance sell a little bit of the over
00:21:23
performers buy a little bit of the
00:21:25
underperformers get back to 801010
00:21:28
you don't even have to think about it
00:21:30
right you don't really care what the
00:21:31
future is you're humble enough you're I
00:21:34
mean we have to go back to the beginning
00:21:35
now right we got to go full circle
00:21:37
you're confident enough to invest your
00:21:39
money you're confident enough to pick an
00:21:42
asset allocation based on your age and
00:21:44
your timeline your risk tolerance all
00:21:46
that good stuff but you're humble enough
00:21:49
to know that you can't really predict
00:21:51
the future you're humble enough to know
00:21:53
that when your asset allocation gets out
00:21:55
of whack you need to Rin it back in and
00:21:57
bring it back into balance it's a mixx
00:22:00
it's a Goldilocks mix not too hot not
00:22:02
too cold not too overconfident not too
00:22:05
underconfidence and again one of my
00:22:07
goals here on the best interest one of
00:22:09
the things that I think is so cool about
00:22:11
financial education and financial
00:22:13
literacy is that over time I really
00:22:16
believe that it it pushes your
00:22:18
confidence into that right Zone you know
00:22:22
I work with people and it's very very
00:22:24
common for a couple things to happen
00:22:25
it's very common for people who
00:22:27
basically are at Step Zero to be
00:22:29
underconfidence
00:22:58
it's that honest overconfidence and they
00:22:59
say no offense Jesse I know more than
00:23:03
you and your co-workers
00:23:04
know okay let's have that conversation I
00:23:07
am I'm totally up for that conversation
00:23:09
I want to hear your points of view but
00:23:10
I'm going to push back because you're
00:23:12
going to have to prove it to me and I'm
00:23:15
not going to be afraid to prove you
00:23:16
wrong usually because it's in your best
00:23:19
interest if I do so right if I let that
00:23:21
honest overconfidence slide and you walk
00:23:23
out of here thinking that you're going
00:23:24
to take over the investing World odds
00:23:27
are you aren't and if you really know
00:23:29
what you're doing I'll be like wow you
00:23:31
are extremely educated on this sure go
00:23:33
for it but 99 times out of a 100 that
00:23:36
honest overconfidence is true
00:23:38
overconfidence and it needs to be tamed
00:23:41
it needs to be brought back to reality
00:23:43
for your own
00:23:45
good okay so the benefit of financial
00:23:49
education one of the things I love he
00:23:51
about the best interest is that over
00:23:53
time your confidence is going to end up
00:23:56
right in that sweet gold Bly lock Zone
00:23:58
where you want it to be the confidence
00:24:00
to take some action to invest your money
00:24:03
to understand that it's the right thing
00:24:04
to do in the long run the confidence to
00:24:07
diversify your money to build a
00:24:08
long-term portfolio to identify your
00:24:10
financial goals and invest accordingly
00:24:13
but then the humility or the lack of
00:24:15
confidence to say I can't really predict
00:24:17
what the Market's going to do tomorrow
00:24:19
and if I need to predict what the
00:24:20
Market's going to do tomorrow I am not
00:24:22
allowed to take that much risk right
00:24:24
those are some humble statements and you
00:24:26
need to have both if you want to be a
00:24:28
good
00:24:29
[Music]
00:24:30
investor thanks for tuning in to this
00:24:33
episode of the best interest podcast if
00:24:35
you have a question for Jesse to answer
00:24:37
on a future episode send him an email at
00:24:39
Jesse bestin interest. blog again that's
00:24:43
Jesse at bestin interest. blog did you
00:24:46
enjoy the show subscribe rate and review
00:24:49
the podcast wherever you listen this
00:24:51
helps others find the show and invest in
00:24:53
knowledge themselves and we really
00:24:55
appreciate it we'll catch you on the
00:24:57
next episode of the best interest
00:25:00
[Music]
00:25:02
podcast the best interest podcast is a
00:25:04
personal podcast met for education and
00:25:07
entertainment it should not be taken as
00:25:09
Financial advice and is not prescriptive
00:25:11
of your financial
00:25:13
situation

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • The Importance of Confidence in Investing
    Confidence can be a double-edged sword in investing; too much or too little can lead to poor decisions.
    “Investing requires a Goldilocks level of confidence.”
    @ 01m 02s
    January 29, 2024
  • Men vs. Women in Confidence
    Studies show men tend to be overconfident while women often underestimate their abilities.
    “Men are honestly overconfident; women are underconfident.”
    @ 04m 47s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Risks of Overconfidence
    Overconfidence can lead to poor investment choices, with individuals trading more and losing money.
    “Overconfident investors are buying the losers and selling the winners.”
    @ 15m 34s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Balance of Confidence and Humility
    Investing requires a mix of confidence to act and humility to accept uncertainty.
    “You’re confident enough to invest your money, but humble enough to know you can’t predict the future.”
    @ 21m 49s
    January 29, 2024
  • Financial Education's Impact
    Financial education helps push your confidence into the right zone for investing.
    “Over time, your confidence is going to end up right in that sweet Goldilocks Zone.”
    @ 23m 56s
    January 29, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Confidence Discussion00:27
  • Goldilocks Confidence01:02
  • Overconfidence Study03:46
  • Self-Attribution Bias13:31
  • Investment Predictions18:50
  • Overconfidence Issues19:32
  • Goldilocks Mix22:00
  • Financial Education23:51

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

Related Episodes

Podcast thumbnail
Where Investors Go Wrong: Tax Traps, Math Mistakes, and Behavioral Biases - E115
Podcast thumbnail
Practical Reasons Why "Retirement Success" Can Still Be Painful | Rob Berger - E88
Podcast thumbnail
Fight, Flight, and Friction: Being Smart in Your Volatile Portfolio | Carl Richards - E83